Billy Wardle Happenings

 Our first introduction to Kingman we traveled through Bullhead.  Traveling east form Bullhead towards Kingman is a rock that very much looks like a middle finger.  Seemed like a rude introduction to Arizona.  This rock is called Thumb Butte.  If you are traveling west from Golden Valley to Bullhead, it does look like a thumb.  However I was introduced to this rock traveling the other direction, and so to me it is the other, and with the nasty things President Biden has been doing and saying aout those who don't see things the way he does, I call it Joe Biden Rock; "Lets Go Brandon."

 We took a buggy ride to west Kingman; off of Anson Smith Road we took the last dirt road to the south and drove up by the cliffs and what I call finger rocks.  This area has many of them.  We also took the White Cliffs road.  This road is very rough, with lots of loss rocks.  We were lucky we were in the buggy.  It gives a view from the back side of the first road we took.  We also went to Beale Springs and ate our picnic lunch.  We also drove up Red Ghost Drive up to the point where there was private property.  It made for a fun day with plenty of views of rocks which I love.  

 When we toured the Mesa Temple first part of November, we took a night to check out the Lost Dutchman Mine State Park.  The superstition Mountains are said to be the place of many alien sightings as well as a lost gold mine.  We didn't see any of that but the mountains are pretty with many hiking trails.  Where we camped was a newer area, and it was a good walk to the restroom.  However the restroom had free showers and was very elegant.  There was a dog walking park across the street from the restroom.  This campground was fun.

  Joshua trees Tony on a rock Mohave Yucca   Chola cactus Yucca Juniper Joshua Tree Visitor Center art Lunch on a rock Skull Rock I found cactus caterpillar Joshua tree Rock I thought looked like a tortoise window rock looks like an elephant Skull Rock Tony and White Tank Arch Rock Chola Cactus Garden Tony's sign pictures ocotillo plant sunset Joshua Trees was a three-day trip.  On day to.  We discovered in park camping was full and spent the night on BLM property north of the park close to Copper Mountain.  Second day we drove through the park.  We hit many interesting sights as can be seen from the pictures.  The highlight was stopping for lunch and eating on the rocks.  This also afforded a short hike.  Another short hike was to Skull Rock which was close to Jumbo Rocks.  The rocks there satisfied any bouldering desires we had.  We all climbed some, but Tony really went all out.  He also hiked to the arch by White Tank Campg...